Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life

In our modern, materialistic world it is easy to separate spirituality from everyday life. But spirituality is not just for saints, neither is it confined to the Sunday Service, Friday prayers, or holy books. It must be a part of our ordinary, everyday existence: it needs to be implicitly present in business, in politics, in farming, in cooking, and in our relationships. To illustrate this, Satish Kumar draws on the Indian Ayurvedic tradition, which characterizes the mind as having three gunas, or primary qualities: sattva (characterized by calmness, clarity, and purity), rajas (energy and passion), and tamas (dullness and ignorance). These qualities can be applied to our work and the environment: for example, there are sattvic foods, rajasic foods, and tamasic foods. The Ayurvedic aim is to live a life that is simple and close to nature (sattvic), to reduce rajasic tendencies, and to avoid tamasic. When we see ourselves in the light of the three gunas, they can orient us toward the direction in which we wish to go. They can help us to recover the art of living, and lead us toward a peaceful and contented existence. Extending the meaning of spirtuality further, Satish explains that there is no dualism between spirit and matter—all matter is imbued with spirit, and spirit manifests through matter. This integrated worldview forms the core of his book.